Snow White and Rose Red
by Ceyrai
Summary: 27K, 5986. Once upon a time, Haru and Kyoko stop waiting to be saved, and meet the boys halfway. / A coming-of-age story.
1. Once Upon a Time

**Ceyrai Says:** I was supposed to write this as a oneshot, but it kinda got out of hand (21,000 words, and it wasn't even done by then) so now we have this multichapter.

This story is a bit cliche'd, really, but I've always liked the premise of Kyoko and Haru finding their place in the Vongola. I was also inspired, among other things, by the Haru and Kyoko-centric fic _They Also Serve _by Lys ap Adin (and the _Generations_ anthology it is part of, co-written with Branch) and the Kyoko-centric _The Sun Always Rises _by Lacewood. It's probably a little more idealistic than what those wonderful authors have written though – I like to think of this as a mix between the idealism of canon KHR and the grimness of the real underworld.

_General Notes:  
>Pairs<em>: 27K, 5986, mentions of 3387 and 1896, some not-quite 2786_  
>Universe<em>: Canon_  
>Warnings<em>: English and Italian swearing. Mentions of violence (but what would you expect of a Mafia story?)._  
>Disclaimer<em>: For all the chapters thereafter – I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, nor any other copyrighted items mentioned.

_Additional Note:_

_Haru's third person address: _It appears inconsistent, but I assure you, each instance was thought of carefully. It depends on the situation, who she is talking to, and how mature she is at the moment.

* * *

><p><strong>Snow White and Rose Red<strong>_  
>you can't make her ungrow her fangs<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1 – Once Upon a Time<strong>_  
>she does not know how to start<em>

_Kyoko ver 14.0_

That day a few months back when Kyoko learned of Tsuna's (mis)adventures as a reluctant Mafia boss-to-be was not exactly the turning point of her life as part of the underworld – if anything, it was only her initiation, and nothing more.

"Are you sure?" Tsuna presses her, earnest brown eyes pleading with her to say – what? _No, I'm not really that sure after all; No, it was just a passing thought_; or _No, you're right, it's too dangerous and I'm not fit for it._

Or maybe, Kyoko muses, it is more of _Yes, I'm sure, because I'm in it for the long haul and I am not making a half-assed decision now._

So she tells him what (_she thinks_) he wants to hear, and a relieved look passes briefly on his face before taking on the usual anxious (he is always so worried, so unconfident of his power to protect them - _her_) expression and saying, "But Kyoko-chan…"

Namimori Junior High's hustle and bustle that late afternoon of March is but white noise to them, the depth of their conversation pulling them into another world – in the junction between the mundane and the Mafia. His hand twitches on the table, as though he wants to grab her, to shake some understanding into her.

But Kyoko understands, in her own way. She is doing this for herself, for her selfish desire to stay in the Family, to be by the side of people (her oniichan, Haru, Bianchi I-Pin Lambo Yamamoto Gokudera Reborn Chrome _Tsuna_, always Tsuna) she loves.

She does not know how to support them, does not know how to start – she is not physically strong or exceptionally skilled or particularly talented, just another pretty face who dangles like bait for Vongola's enemies – but she does know she is determined to learn.

And she knows that Tsuna needs her, despite his desperate attempts to keep her safe (_push her away_). She thinks, sometimes, that it is awfully presumptive of her, but she knows with the way he looks at her (_guilt, pain, desperation, longing, love_) that he does. He_ does_.

And she needs him too.

"Kyoko-chan," Tsuna groans, burying his face into his palms, "I'm not… I can't… I don't want you to enter this world I can barely stomach. Please."

She knows he needs her, but she knows more than that. She knows how he hates the Mafia world, hates the fact that he has no choice but to be in it – and she wants to make that choice easier to bear by being there, knowing it will help in the smallest of ways.

And she needs him too, maybe more than he needs her.

She has always been selfish in this respect, so why stop now?

"Tsuna-kun," and she puts her hands on the sides of his head, around his tufts of soft brown hair, resolve burning like the Flame she wishes was hers too, "I go wherever you go."

He raises his head, realizing the depth of her words.

_If you enter the Mafia world, I will enter with you. If you choose a normal life – one which Reborn would never let you choose – I will be there with you. If you are to bloody your hands and endure pain not fit for a kind soul like yours, maybe a selfish soul like mine can share the burden._

The day Kyoko enters the Mafia world is not the day when she learns of it, nor the day she debuts into its society, nor the day she first takes up her proverbial arms against Vongola's enemies.

It is the day when Tsuna squeezes the hands wrapped around his head, and closes his eyes, understanding the things she knows.

_Haru ver 13.4_

Gokudera is horrified when he first sees Haru with a gun in her hands.

Everyone has parted ways throughout the base, aching to train once more after the excitement of Byakuran's cyber-infiltration, Squalo's arrival and subsequent abduction of Yamamoto, and the revelation of Tsuna's honesty to Kyoko and Haru. They are not sure what to think of the latter development, but have resolved to think of it as a good thing for the meantime.

Gokudera himself does not know how to fit this turn of events into his survival strategy. Truthfully enough, it ensures that the girls do not go blindly into danger, now that they know how sinister the world has become. That makes them easier to protect.

Their emotional well-being is another factor, however. He realizes, as he always has, that emotions play a big part in (undoing) strategies, and knows that whatever Tsuna thinks, his revelation will have ultimately different effects with the two girls.

Kyoko is a quiet sort of strong, he thinks. A bit airheaded, but knows how to take things in stride. Before, there were times he could not fathom how a girl could remain so ignorant of things that are blatantly in her face, but the recent boycott has forced him to understand that she at least knows when things are amiss – and that she is less ignorant and more unflinching. His instincts are now surer about it – arming her with the knowledge of the Mafia just makes her stronger tenfold.

She suddenly is a bit more worthy of the Vongola Decimo than usual. Not just a fragile porcelain doll anymore. Perhaps she can hold the weight of the Family in her hands.

Haru, however, is more volatile. Though she knows more about their world than Kyoko does (at least for now), she tends to be more emotional and unstable. Gokudera has never liked her. She represents all that is unfit for the Mafia world – foolhardy, melodramatic, pushy, soft, kind,_ fragile_ – and she will be the first to fall in the dawn of trying times.

Uri has taken to Haru, because the girl is a magnet for tiny animals and children, the same way that Uri does _not_ take to Gokudera, because he is the antithesis of Haru. His training session degenerates into a frustrated afternoon with the Box Weapon when it becomes a chase that ultimately ends in the weapons lab.

"Uri, you stupid cat, what the hell do you think you're doing!"

He turns a corner to see Uri, purring sweetly at Haru, who turns to him like a deer against headlights.

Her hands are shaking with the weight of a revolver, unsure of how to hold it. Something tells him that (_soft and stupid_) Haru with a gun is not a natural occurrence, and before he or Haru can think anything cohesive, he grabs it from her and sets it down with its fellows in the display case.

He can hear blood thumping in his ears. "What," he quietly asks, deliberately slow, "are you playing at?"

Haru is pale, everything about her quivering.

"Haru needs… _I_ need to be stronger." Her voice is forcibly steady, and she looks him in the eye, steely and desperate. "I need to learn to protect myself, because Haru… because I'm a burden if I can't. Tsuna-san… Tsuna-san and everyone have so much to worry about – who am I to be worried about if the whole world is to be worried about?"

"So, Gokudera-san," she says loudly, choking back a sob, "give Haru the gun back."

He stares at her for a moment, before giving her his darkest glare. "Idiot," he growls with venom. She flinches almost imperceptibly. "Do you know how to handle a gun? Do you even know what kind of gun that is? Have you any idea what you can do with that thing?"

"I can kill people," she says almost immediately. "People who are bad and will hurt me and the people in our Family."

_Our Family_, Gokudera echoes in his mind. _As though she is an irreplaceable, established part of it._

He respects that, for the first time ever.

"No," he says. "You will do no such thing."

"But Haru-!"

"No," he insists, green eyes flashing with frustration that wills her to understand.

She is indignant. "Who are you to-"

"_I_," he interrupts, "am the Tenth's right-hand man. _I_ get a say on how the members of the Family are to be protected, whether by their own hands or not, because all of them are my responsibility. And you, Miura Haru, are not enough to protect yourself."

And the brunette is stunned into silence, cornered with the truth. Her knees quake beneath her, and Gokudera does not move when she drops to the floor. Uri rubs his furry head against her side comfortingly.

"But Haru… but Haru…" she chokes, tears spilling from her eyes, "Haru doesn't want to be a burden. Haru is weak. Haru _needs_ that gun. Haru needs strength."

And words he does not believe spring from his mouth as he kneels down beside her. "You're strong, just in your own way," he says quietly. "You don't need physical strength to survive in this world. You just need to be yourself. Never change. Because that's why you're the Tenth's friend. He needs people like you, to keep him grounded, to remind him why he needs to be strong. Because he has something to protect, and that's you and Sasagawa Kyoko."

There is no reason to tell her that she is a burden, but a burden all of them are willing to carry, if only for the sake of Tsuna's sanity. Otherwise he thinks she is a useless pile of weeping girl that makes his chest tight each time she fights to catch her breath between sobs. And he wonders, as he pats her shoulder awkwardly, if she will ever be more than that.

* * *

><p><strong>Ceyrai Says: <strong>The first chapter is a bit slow and short, but it's just to set up the tone of the whole piece, which won't be very long. A taster if you will. Still, I hope their development fleshes out well despite the length. There will also be times that one girl's part will seem longer than the other's, but I assure you that I tried to make their parts as even as possible.

Just… don't mind the length of anything, length isn't relevant. Haha.

Please leave comments, compliments, and constructive criticisms!


	2. In a Faraway Land

**Ceyrai says: **This chapter is a bit longer than the previous, which I hope my dear readers will enjoy. Things are proceeding quickly for the two girls, but they've still got a long way to go. Kyoko is probably having an easier time than Haru though – Haru is just a magnet for drama like that.

_General Notes:_  
><em>Pairs<em>: 27K, 5986, some 3387 and 1896, some not-quite 2786  
><em>Universe<em>: Canon  
><em>Warnings<em>: English and Italian swearing. Mentions of violence (but what would you expect of a Mafia story?).  
><em>Disclaimer<em>: For all the chapters thereafter – I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, nor any other copyrighted items mentioned.

_Additional Notes:_  
><em>CEDEF<em>: I'm not certain if I'm talking sense since the series doesn't really make it clear for me, but whatever I wrote in this piece is what I understand of it.

_Madonna_: It's not particularly Mafia lingo (as far as I know), but I made it out to be Vongola lingo. Reborn used it once to refer to Kyoko in a prologue of an episode, but the meaning used here is borrowed from Wragnaroq R. Mageddon's The Dragon and the Clam, an awesome 27K multichap.

_Japanese weapons: _katana of course is sword, naginata is spear (traditionally used by women of samurai lineage), senbon are throwing needles, and tanto is a small sword about the length of a forearm.

* * *

><p><strong>Snow White and Rose Red<strong>_  
>you can't make her ungrow her fangs<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2 – In a Faraway Land<strong>_  
>she is dead serious in wanting to prove her usefulness<em>

_Kyoko ver 14.1_

"What does being in the CEDEF mean?" Kyoko asks, alert and pen poised to take notes.

"The CEDEF are part of the Family, yet apart from it," Reborn explains. "They move independently and participate in covert missions that only the Vongola Boss, and perhaps his Guardians, are privy to - but the Boss has not much say on their movements."

"But their loyalty is to the Family," Kyoko prompts.

"Certainly," Reborn replies. "They work for the Vongola alone, but they have their own rules. This makes them very useful in operations requiring utmost secrecy, among other things. Also, in times of conflict the CEDEF head becomes the Vongola's second-in-command, and has a hand in deciding the next Boss of the Family."

Kyoko grins a bit. "Is that why Tsuna-kun was a candidate?"

Reborn smiles as wryly as a baby could. "Don't get me wrong – he comes from a worthy bloodline, being a descendant of the Vongola Primo himself. But it does help that his father is the current CEDEF head."

Tsuna, sitting at the other end of the table, grimaces. It wasn't as if he wanted to be the Boss of anything. And why was Reborn talking as if he had gotten his position through connections and not by his own right? It wasn't fair at all.

"But Tsuna-kun did earn the right to be Boss, ne, Reborn?" Kyoko asks. Tsuna perks up at this.

"Heh, well, for all intents and purposes he's still Dame-Tsuna," Reborn replies, "but if the Nono has acknowledged him, then that's good enough for me."

"I suppose he has a long way to go," Kyoko says quietly, ignoring Tsuna's soft splutter of "Hey, I'm right here!" She smiles. "But, well, a gentle person like him could lead the Vongola back to the right path, ne?"

Tsuna stares at Kyoko.

Reborn shakes his head in amusement. "Looks like Iemitsu has gotten to you somehow."

"Yes, well," Kyoko acknowledges with a shrug of one shoulder and a sweet smile, which fades into a serious one again. "So, about the CEDEF – how do they make sure that the members don't rebel? They have such power and authority in their hands, they could become a separate Family."

"True, but the CEDEF head changes from Boss to Boss," Reborn lectures once more. "Meaning the Boss could put someone close to him in that position. Someone whose loyalty will never waver."

"Have you chosen your CEDEF head, Tsuna-kun?" Kyoko turns to Tsuna, acknowledging his presence for the first time in a while.

He shrugs. "I haven't thought that far into the future yet, but Dad could- hey! Didn't I already say I'm not going to be the Boss of the Vongola?"

But Kyoko and Reborn have chosen to ignore this. "What about the Varia?" Kyoko asks. "Didn't Xanxus-san rebel once before?"

Tsuna blanches, unpleasant memories of the Tournament and the peaceful reality of Kyoko refusing to connect in his mind. "Varia? G-geez, Kyoko-chan, let's not talk about something so unpleasant!"

"Shall I put this annoying idiot to sleep, Kyoko?" Reborn asks calmly, brandishing Leon-turned-gun.

"Ah, no, that's unnecessary, Reborn," Kyoko says, just as calmly. Tsuna splutters again, but the thought of the gun (and Kyoko being calm in the face of his danger) keeps him silent. "So, the Varia? Their dynamics with the Vongola Boss are similar with CEDEF's, yes?"

The baby hitman nods. "They usually defer to the Boss more than the CEDEF does, though that hasn't been totally true recently, what with someone as volatile as Xanxus at the helm. Despite that, a true leader will know how to keep them loyal." And he pins Tsuna a glance full of meaning.

"I see," Kyoko murmurs, writing something down on her pad.

"Why so suddenly interested in the sub-groups of the Vongola, Kyoko?" Reborn asks, finally giving in to curiosity – though he has a bit of an idea. "I'm relieved you're expressing interest in various aspects of the Family, but I'm not sure how this all ties in to your future role in the Vongola, whatever it is." He pauses. "Well, unless you have plans joining either one."

"Joining the Varia-" Tsuna chokes.

"No, I don't think I'll be doing that," Kyoko says cheerfully, and her future Boss breathes a sigh. "But," and her cheeks redden, "Tsuna-kun has to embrace all of the Vongola – the CEDEF and the Varia included – for better or for worse. And if to accept the entire Family is what the Vongola Decimo does, it's what the Vongola Madonna ought to do too, right?"

A long silence.

"Madonna?" Tsuna finally asks. He has not learned that particular Vongola lingo yet.

But Reborn comes very close to laughing out loud. "Your future role in the Family, eh? Glad to see at least one of you has ambitions."

Tsuna looks baffled, not knowing if he wants to know what the Madonna is.

"Well, Kyoko," Reborn says briskly, back to business again, "since you're so keen about this, why don't we start looking for a tutor to teach you some Italian and a bit of European etiquette? The next time I lecture you about the Family, you'll probably need to know some of the basics to understand it."

And Kyoko, attentive as she is, does not fail to blush deeper.

_Haru ver 13.5_

The first thing Haru does when she gets back to her own time is to start reading on weapons. At first she is apprehensive – what would people think if they found out about her sudden interest in deadly objects? – but then she remembers that she is Miura Haru who does not really care what other people think of her.

It is, however, a bit uncomfortable knowing that while she did not care what strangers thought, she did care what her friends in the Vongola would think. They are too used to coddling her (and Kyoko, and sometimes even Chrome and I-Pin) that she just knows they would be more likely to be troubled with the thought of her expressing even more interest in the underworld.

But she knows that this is a course inevitable from the start – it had been only a matter of time.

She first reads on Japanese weapons – from the standard katana to the feminine naginata to the covert senbon. The latter fascinates her – striking from a distance, with nearly no indication as to who may have thrown them… and then she shudders when she realizes that _this_ is what assassins do.

_This is for self-defense, _she reminds herself. _Nothing more._

After a bit, she writes tanto down as one of her options.

She comes across more types of swords, spears, and knives from all over the globe, and even develops a curiosity with the more unorthodox weaponry like brass knuckles and bladed tonfa. But melee weapons, though useful for offense and defense, feel just too _brutish._ She knows that they have their own graceful attributes – seeing Tsuna's Guardians fight already attested to this – but she could see in her mind's eye that they would not fit in her hands as perfectly.

_But Haru's not going to fight_, she tells herself again. _It doesn't need to be perfect. This is just to defend myself. Nothing more._

She closes the tabs on her browser that list all kinds of information on guns and exhales sharply through her nose.

_Self-defense, and not fighting. Nothing more._

In the week after that she finds herself browsing through a weapons shop, somehow emerging with a Swiss knife and an application for shooting lessons tucked in between the pages of her pink Hello Kitty planner.

She shudders again – this time with anticipation and with a rebellious beating in her ribcage. And the moment she steps into the firing range the next Saturday, she knows what her primary weapon is. The knife is always tucked somewhere in her clothes, though – it would have to do until she gets a firearms license.

_Kyoko ver 14.8_

Hana cannot remember the first time Kyoko lies to her, but only because her excuses develop into lies so slowly that she does not notice. But when she _does_ realize this about her best friend in the whole wide world, it floors her – how could Kyoko, that sweet girl who had befriended her headstrong young self when few else would, ever do anything like _lie_?

But most of all, it hurts to think that she, the usually deemed trustworthy and stable Hana, becomes the one person Kyoko cannot bring herself to tell the truth to.

(She sort of sees Kyoko's initial hurt with Tsuna, now.)

She has a vague feeling, of course, about what Kyoko gets up to these days. The girl's constant association with Haru, and Tsuna's friends, and of course Tsuna himself, makes it clear enough that she has become involved in the same business as them – a sort of business that Hana is not totally clear about, but just knows (and fears) is dangerous.

"It's because I'm taking Italian language and etiquette lessons every Monday and Friday evening," Kyoko reassures her gently, when she asks (_tries not to demand_) why they can't walk home together on those days. This, Hana suspects, is the truth. It doesn't make it any less ridiculous.

"What do you need Italian language and etiquette lessons for?" she asks. "Are you going to move to Italy or something?"

A beat. Then, "Of course not, Hana-chan!" Kyoko exclaims, laughing at the ludicrousness of the suggestion. "It's just that Tsuna-kun is really into that stuff, and, you know, I really like him so I want to be able to keep up with him." She blushes. "I'm serious about him, you know?"

By this time, Hana notes, Kyoko has found a way to blend truth into lies. Of course she likes Tsuna, of _course_ she's serious about him enough to want to mirror his interests. But Hana understands that 'interest' may be an understatement of Tsuna's involvement with things Italian, and that one day, that is going to take Kyoko away from her. Figuratively and literally.

"Geez, Kyoko," Hana says exasperatedly, rolling her eyes heavenward. "You can tell me, you know? I think something's up. I'm not stupid – I know it's not just lessons, I know it's suspicious stuff. So tell me."

Kyoko glances at Haru, who merely blinks back at her. They stare for about a second before Kyoko smiles at back at Hana. "Oh Hana-chan, you're just reading too much into it."

Here's another thing that Hana knows – Kyoko and Haru's friendship has become, in a way, deeper than what Kyoko and Hana have.

And really, sometimes, it's not even that Kyoko lies to her which hurts. It's that she seems to be the only one who is kept in the dark about the activities of Tsuna's circle – activities that the two other girls have bonded over. She doesn't necessarily hate Haru – but she cannot accept that Haru and Kyoko have developed the sort of friendship wherein an exchanged glance is all it takes to understand each other.

That used to be hers.

She feels bitter about it – more bitter than she would have expected. She has never given much thought to the reality that Kyoko could drift away from her. She wants the old days back – when Kyoko did nothing more but unknowingly bask in popularity while Hana staved off unworthy suitors, when they had time enough for Kyoko to tease Hana about Ryohei, when whatever Kyoko knew she knew as well. She just _wants Kyoko back._

"I'll make it up to you, okay?" Kyoko says sweetly before she rushes away with Haru to whatever mysterious thing they are involved in. To the danger that Hana wishes wasn't going to take Kyoko even further away. She finds herself unable to expect any truth out of the statement, and unable to trust someone she's sure has lost trust in _her._

_What, she thinks I can't take it?_

But despite that thought, Kyoko is still Kyoko. She does make it up to her eventually with a shopping weekend, just the two of them. With this reprieve from all the suspicion, Hana manages to realize and reiterate to herself that Kyoko probably has her reasons for doing whatever she is doing. Perhaps all the secrecy is for her protection, or some other deeply noble cause that Hana is convinced is stupid because really – she has taken care of Kyoko far too long to believe that the other girl is going to turn the tables and take care of Hana, instead.

It is stupid, as she understands that their friendship doesn't need noble causes or anything like that – but it needs honesty from both parties. All she can do is trust Kyoko to tell her one day – at least, before everything blows up in her face.

(It takes a few more years for Kyoko to admit her already deep ties to the Mafia, but thankfully, Hana is much sharper about things than Kyoko realizes.)

(And it helps to have a wildly transparent blabbermouth boyfriend, Hana thinks later in life.)

_Haru ver 14.11_

Things start to happen quickly for Haru a year and a half after she steps into the firing range for that first time. It is precisely the same amount of time it takes for her activities to be noticed by someone in the Family – long enough for her to be surprised about being found out. In fact, at first, she does not even consider the idea that she _has _been discovered.

That is why, when beset with a particularly confusing query, she blinks her russet eyes at Basil with her brow furrowed in part-confusion and part-incredulity. "Are… are you… _propositioning Haru_?"

The boys, including Basil, do a spit take all around. Bianchi quietly snorts in amusement, while Kyoko blushes. Reborn, however, is quietly observant as always.

_But one has to ask, _the tiny hitman says to himself, _how can Haru take the statement "Couldst thee come with me to converse in private" for something like a sexual advance?_

The young CEDEF agent manages to get a hold of himself quicker than anyone else. With a soft clearing of his throat, he begins again with, "Well… in the strictest sense of the word, Haru-dono, there be but a proposition for thee with regards to mine organization, CEDEF."

The conversation immediately turns serious as all the people in the room tense – though Haru still does not know the implications of such a statement as deeply as the others. "CEDEF?" she says slowly. "That's the external adviser thing of the Family, right?"

"That is so, Haru-dono."

An uneasy silence befalls them for a few seconds, before Gokudera snaps, "What does that have anything to do with the stupid woman anyway? She doesn't even know shit about it – what're you trying to push on her now?"

Because they all know what Basil is trying to say, even without him elaborating on it. However, it is a question that bothers the boys – what, indeed, does CEDEF expect from Haru, who is a non-combatant?

What they do not know is that CEDEF – or at least Basil and Iemitsu – keeps close watch on potentially skilled individuals around Tsuna's perimeter, and that Haru is now practiced enough that they can recruit her before the Varia (or any other branch of the Vongola, or even other Families) can. To add to their ranks someone who shows enough potential as a skilled gunslinger and more than enough loyalty to the future Boss is something Iemitsu views as heaven-sent.

"I believe Haru-dono desireth not to speak of such a matter in present company," Basil says quietly, and for the first time, it occurs to Haru that he knows more about her hobby (_obsession_, a voice inside her sometimes snarks) than she wishes any of the boys would. He certainly knows that it is a secret, she realizes with a sickening swoop of her stomach.

Gokudera slaps a hand on the table. "To hell with that. I don't like not knowing what the hell's going on with the stupid woman, and I certainly don't like knowing that something's up with her and CEDEF that I'm not allowed to comprehend. And the Tenth deserves to hear the whole truth, whatever it is!"

"Well, if it's something to do with the Vongola," Yamamoto says, mild as always – but his arms are crossed, belying his reluctance for such secrecy, "I think we should know about it too."

"Haru-chan," Tsuna implores, "why do you think the CEDEF wants to talk to you?"

By this time, Haru has reddened into a maroon shade, and with the way her shoulders have tensed, it is now glaringly obvious how cornered she is feeling. "Ha…" she begins as she clutches the edge of the table, nails digging into the varnish. "Ha…"

"Ha…?" Everyone leans in slowly, on tenterhooks as to her reply.

"Ha… HAH_IIIIIIIIIIIIIII_!" And she runs out of Nana's kitchen, out of the house, and into the street, leaving everyone stunned. They do not see her for two weeks, and everyone feels as though it is taboo to corner her yet again, so no one chases after her.

However, Basil's surveillance team becomes increasingly aware that the Vongola Decimo has dispatched his own makeshift team composed of his right-hand man and his girlfriend to monitor, very subtly, the status of his good friend.

Following Haru into the shooting range the weekend after, they are surprised. Kyoko, of course, knows more about Haru's little trips to the firing range every Sunday morning than any of Tsuna's inner circle, but even she is not fully aware of exactly how Haru has grown – only that her friend has found something that can set herself on fire. And thus it is with half-fascination and half-understanding she watches.

On the other hand, Gokudera finds he is not surprised – seeing Haru a year and a half ago (or was it eight and a half years in the future?) has prepared him somewhat for the sight of her handling a gun. What he _does _feel quite shocked for is the way the brunette squares her narrow shoulders, hardens her chocolate eyes, purses her cherry lips, and blows the target into itty bitty wooden shards in less than five seconds. It's not (weak fragile soft) Haru anymore – a girl (_so frail_) would have never demolished anything just like that, much less with a gun.

_That can't be her… can it?_

For those few seconds she looks different, dangerous – a beautiful killer.

And Gokudera, for all the shock and fear and awe and impression she instills in him, he disapproves.

"It doesn't fit her, dammit," he stresses to Tsuna when he reports back. "She doesn't have to do something like this. She knows we can protect her, so why should she?"

"Well, isn't that a good thing, that we've got one less person to protect if she can hold her own?" Yamamoto says evenly. "That way we can focus on-"

_BAM. Crack!_

"_Fuck!_" Tsuna and Yamamoto wince as Gokudera nurses the profusely bleeding hand he has cut from slamming a glass on the table. But it's not the wound he's angry about. "What the hell d'you mean by _one less person to protect_?"

Tsuna squeaks. "G-Gokudera-kun, you're hurt!" He tries to reach for the bleeding hand, but the silveret is too caught in his fury to notice the concern.

"Haru may have found a way to fight, but it doesn't mean we don't have to protect her!" he barks, pulling Yamamoto by the collar, ignoring his Boss's protests. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

The swordsman, no longer as calm, shoves the hand from his collar. "I'm not going to coddle Haru if she doesn't want to be. I'm going to put my trust in her, is what I'm thinking." He gives Gokudera a dark look. "Why can't you?"

Gokudera may disapprove, but Basil does not, and neither does Iemitsu. Basil knows from firsthand observation that Haru has potential not only to become valuable to the team, but to become head of the entire organization if Tsuna would permit it. Iemitsu simply wants to fill the organization with people his son shares the same ideals with. A few more weeks pass before the younger agent manages to get a hold of Haru – again on speaking terms with her Namimori friends – and once more presents the option of joining CEDEF as a trainee, and eventually as a full member.

She refuses with a flustered stutter and vigorous shaking of her head… but not before Basil sees a gleam of _something _in her brown orbs. For the time being, however, he does not ask again. Instead, he offers something a bit lighter.

"Wouldst thou consent to meet with Lal-dono, at the least? Verily wilt she permit unto thee a few lessons, if thou art agreeable."

Haru gives him a long look, assessing the pros and cons of the offer. She struggles for a moment with the decision – _self-defense and nothing more, what a joke_ – knowing this is another step she takes towards a place away from her previous goal. However, she finally nods a bit uncertainly, but with definite interest in her gaze. She has met the Lal Mirch of the-future-that-isn't, and knows valuable knowledge can be gained from such a fearsome fighter.

Basil takes her to Lal the next day, but the Arcobaleno merely gives her a look of disdain as Basil explains her unusual circumstances of being caught in the middle ground between a mere friend of the Decimo di Vongola, and a soldier of his.

"I don't need to take in anyone who isn't serious about the Family."

This is a stab to Haru's pride. Despite her uncertainty about fighting, she is dead serious in wanting to prove her usefulness as a member of Tsuna's circle. She squares her shoulders (as though this is just one her targets) and replies with conviction: "I may not want to be associated with CEDEF – at least not yet – but I'm serious in wanting to help Tsuna-san however I can. If getting physically stronger is what it takes, then I'll do it."

She glares at Lal. "If Lal-san does not want to train me though, that's fine. I'll just look for someone else to help me. I just need to get to my goal, is all."

Lal's eyes narrow, but she does not retort right away. Basil steps back as the aura gets dangerous between the two females, a little unnerved by the unexpected development. Haru stands her ground.

"You don't want to join CEDEF." It's not a question. Lal's eyes bore into Haru's.

"No. But I want to remain by Tsuna-san's side along with everyone else."

Another few seconds tick by. Finally, Lal sighs, before casting an assessing eye up and down.

"Miura. How much do you know about parkour?"

* * *

><p><strong>Ceyrai Says: <strong>Okay, so maybe Haru's development is proceeding quicker than Kyoko's. It's probably because Kyoko really is more well-adjusted than Haru to begin with. They both deserve a lot of credit, though – imagine preparing to become a Mafia bride with that age and upbringing…

Comments, compliments, constructive criticism are always welcome!


	3. There Lived Two Fair Maidens

**Ceyrai says: **The girls are getting a bit of action (no, not _that_ kind) in this chapter, albeit of different types, compatible to their skill set. Are you starting to enjoy, dears? I hope, hope, hope you are! I've certainly enjoyed writing this part.

Also, I've been asked by a friend why it's Lal and not Reborn who's teaching Haru how to fight with guns. Well, I felt that Reborn would be too busy training (coughtorturingcough) Tsuna anyway, and that it would take a female to efficiently teach another female to fight. As for efficiency with guns, Reborn is undoubtedly better (at least in my head-canon) but I think Lal's (hypothetical) ability to relate with Haru just trumps that.

_General Notes:  
>Pairs:<em> 27K, 5986, some 3387 and 1896, some not-quite 2786_  
>Universe:<em> Canon_  
>Warnings:<em> English and Italian swearing. Mentions of violence (but what would you expect of a Mafia story?)._  
>Disclaimer:<em>For all the chapters thereafter – I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, nor any other copyrighted items mentioned.

_Additional Notes:_

_Izakaya: _a sort of restaurant which mostly serves alcoholic drinks, much like a bar but not exactly. It has private function rooms in the Japanese style, and that's where the scene occurs.

* * *

><p><strong>Snow White and Rose Red<strong>_  
>you can't make her ungrow her fangs<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3 – There Lived Two Fair Maidens<strong>_  
>with a Flame that is not quite there but is<em>

_Kyoko ver 16.2_

Ryohei is adamant that Kyoko must not carry a weapon on her person – nearly as adamant as he was when the question had been whether or not to keep her in the dark about the Mafia. And he has about as much success in stopping her from bringing a Vongola-customized taser everywhere as he has had success in keeping secrets from her.

Tsuna, surprisingly, consents wholeheartedly, but only because a taser ensures that Kyoko is protected but never has to dirty her hands. It isn't enough for the more powerful enemies of the Family, but he is (to some degree) put at ease with knowing that Kyoko will be able to put up a fight, at least.

(Neither boy has any idea, though, that it is a taser merely in name and appearance; it is the fact that it is Vongola-customized, and therefore more creative in dispatching enemies, that makes it a formidable enough weapon to protect the Decimo's Madonna.)

But Ryohei doesn't like that – "Kyoko" and "fight" do not sound agreeable in the same sentence. Thus he makes (admittedly feeble) attempts to take the taser from her, but she knows his hiding places too well for any of those attempts to work. After a few more failed trials, he goes for trying to convince her that a weapon is unnecessary, that he and other Guardians are enough to protect her.

But she only wears a mysterious smile she seems to be sporting a lot these days, and says, "Isn't it better this way, Oniichan, that I can at least immobilize my attacker to buy time for you to come to my rescue?"

And really, arguments are not his strong field, so he backs out of any further debate on it. Still, it does not mean he approves.

High school brings with it even more drama than what Tsuna's Family is used to facing. With high school comes being a little more grown up, and with being more grown up means grown-up troubles – like having to explain to (_beat sense into_) a few Yakuza oyabun that they're _not _an upstart new clan, and increasingly vicious marriage proposals from every which direction – that have wormed their way into the young Vongola Family's schedules.

Among other things.

"Like we don't have enough to deal with already," sighs Yamamoto, this being a clear indication of how much the extra worries have exasperated everyone – usually, he would be the last to complain about anything.

Kyoko exhales slowly, calmly folds the letter of challenge – one assuring in saccharine cursive Italian that the position of the Vongola Madonna is never safely hers – back into the scented pink envelope, and arranges her hands on her lap. She is the epitome of composure especially when surrounded by her friends who are squirming with varying unease. (Except for Hibari, who never squirms and never cares enough to be uneasy – which does beg the question of what he is doing in the Sasagawa living room with the rest of the peanut gallery.)

It has been a long time since she is last exempt from the madness that surrounds their little gang, and everyone figures she's used to it by now. Still, they know it's not exactly easy to be the focal point of many of the situations that besiege them throughout their mid-teen years – the disadvantages _almost_ outweigh the advantages of being the Decimo di Vongola's girlfriend.

But, "It's not as if this is the first time," Kyoko murmurs.

Ryohei is always fired up and pumped with adrenaline, punching the air and growling in anticipation – but rarely is he so angry that he has to hold it in, lest he scare his sister. He sits on the couch with her, bandaged fists shaking as he clenches and unclenches them repeatedly.

There are so many things wrong with this picture.

He doesn't think it's very fair, the way Kyoko has to deal with troubling matters just because she loves Tsuna, a future Boss. He's mad at the troublemakers, mad at Reborn for giving her the idea of being responsible for such situations, and – as much as he doesn't want to blame Tsuna – mad at the younger boy for just standing by and letting it all happen. But mostly he's mad at himself for failing to protect Kyoko from – well, things. He's not good at articulating, but he just _feels _that he could have done much for her to avoid (_the Mafia, guns, violence, Rings, Flames_) such a life, but did not.

"Dammit, Kyoko," he growls, brotherly instinct more than anything else fueling his fury. "Just say the word and I'll let 'em have it to the extreme!"

(To the onlookers, his catchphrase isn't even half as funny or annoying as it usually is.)

But Kyoko merely smiles and reassures the congregation that she will handle it herself. Ryohei and the other boys, but most especially him, object loudly, but are swiftly and silently smothered by Bianchi's glower.

"You all insult her greatly with your lack of confidence in her," she intones, quiet and terrible. "_Shut up_."

Ryohei, intimidated though he is by the Poison Scorpion's verbal venom, does not ponder much on how insulting his concern might be or how much he lacks confidence in Kyoko. But he does brood on the fact that he is scared shitless for whatever may happen to his precious baby sister – peace-loving, gentle, soft Kyoko who is easy pickings for the villains of the underground.

Was it so wrong to want safety and peace for his most favorite person in the world?

Tsuna's Family cannot come to a consensus on the matter – most of the boys elect to handle the situation themselves, without letting Kyoko take part at all. Chrome quietly lends her support with a soft, "I'm sorry, Boss, but I think Kyoko-san's enough for this," and Bianchi says it a little more harshly. Haru of course is behind Kyoko all the way, and Reborn chooses to be neutral as always for his own reasons. Finally, they turn to Hibari.

He merely rolls his eyes and chooses to deliver his opinion by way of his favorite metaphor. "You can't make her un-grow her fangs, Sawada."

At the end of the day, Kyoko manages to convince Tsuna and (_refuses to listen to reason_) meets with her challenger – a girl a year older than her, carrying with her the ambitions of her own Family into gaining connections with one of the most powerful Families of all time. The girl brings a contingent of armed bodyguards, a few A-Grade Flame Rings, and her fearsome-looking butler to the assembly in a notorious izakaya called The House of Blue Leaves.

Kyoko comes only with her taser, an entourage composed of just I-Pin, Yamamoto, and Reborn, and a quiet assurance in the way she strides into the rowdy establishment with nary a falter, clad in a formal kimono ("For extra intimidatory effect," Reborn says).

Miles away in the Sasagawa household, Ryohei and Tsuna wear away the polished wood of the older boy's room as they continuously pace, sometimes bumping into each other in characteristic awkwardness. Gokudera is there to be the voice of reason, but he can say nothing of substance in the light of the duo's barely-held-in hysterics. Instead, he is the one who holds on to Tsuna's cellphone – which Yamamoto has promised to call – flipping it open and close repeatedly. Only Lambo seems to be calm about the entire thing, but that is because his attention is held by a lollipop.

And when the ebony-haired boy finally does report back, Ryohei finally realizes that Kyoko's real weapon isn't any tangible thing that he can hide under his floorboard out of her reach, and that it has enough destructive power to completely obliterate a Family or make it absolutely subservient.

It is the utter grace that she has when she completely dominates the other girl with deep knowledge on illegal human trafficking, bribery and assassination of government officials, the fact that said rival is wearing an imitation Fendi hairband, and other such secrets that her rival's much weaker Family would rather keep quiet about in the face of a powerful peacekeeping vigilante Family like this generation's Vongola. It is the silent danger she emits when she promises the other girl that though she has absolutely no say on the decisions of the higher-ups of the Family, she will make sure something will be done about such atrocities.

And in the face of an accusation-

"What about _you_? You lowlife without any lineage, you stink of poverty that it makes me_ sick_. What does a Family like the Vongola gain with someone like you? Or does an ugly beggar with no breeding have to rely on underhanded tactics to keep Don Tsunayoshi's attention? What sort of hallucinogen are you feeding him that he doesn't see you _for the gold digger you are_?"

"Oi," Yamamoto mutters, a warning in his voice. I-Pin makes a similar sound, and the two look as though they will spring into action at a moment's notice. Reborn watches impassively, eyes shadowed by his fedora.

Kyoko waves a hand, and they back down. "Right now, it doesn't matter what the Vongola has to gain by having me. It doesn't even matter that it bothers me to see Tsuna-kun troubled by these things. But it does matter if someone such as yourself presents herself as a choice for Tsuna-kun's bride. I love my Family, and if there were someone who deserves my current position more than I, I would gladly give it up."

She puts on a smile, cheerful and pretty.

"However, I don't think you're quite so deserving of my complete surrender."

The girl reddens and sputters. "Who are you to-"

Kyoko's eyes sharpen with a Flame that is not quite there _but is_, and she proclaims it loud and clear.

"I am the girl Tsuna-kun has chosen to be by his side. And I will do everything in my power to be worthy of that."

It is the kind of strength and conviction she possesses, both of which not one other girl has. And Ryohei finally understands. It still takes him a few more years to get used to it, but that is where it starts.

Kyoko wins.

(And she doesn't even use the taser.)

_Haru ver 15.5_

Haru liked to believe that she knew what she was getting into the first time the cool metal of a gun settled into her inexperienced hands.

Remembering her words to Gokudera back then - "_I can kill people, people who are bad and will hurt me and the people in our Family_" – she almost laughs at how _convinced _she must have sounded. She wonders – no, actually, she _knows _it now: she had no _fucking idea_ what she was talking about.

_Naïve._

_**BOOM!**_

She leaps out the way as pieces of shrapnel come flying towards her. A bit of broken glass cuts her cheek, but she only grumbles, readjusts her hold on her pistol and revises her battle plan.

"Oi CEDEF girl, this ain't too much for you, is it?" Squalo asks, his characteristic growl laced with uncharacteristic concern.

"Haru's fine," she snaps, but only because it pisses her off that she looks pathetic enough that the second-in-command of the _Varia _is actually taking pity on her. "And Haru's not from CEDEF!"

"Poteito-potahto," Belphegor snickers, twirling knives between his fingers as if they weren't in mortal peril.

"It's not as if it's Haru's first mission!" the girl decides to retort, but to her dismay it sounds more like a suspiciously specific denial. The two of them don't even dignify her with a proper response, Squalo merely snorting and Bel cackling madly.

But it isn't her first mission, really – _that_ one had been a disaster to say the least, though Basil tried to make her feel better by saying the first mission is always the hardest, and that they finished it successfully anyway, however sloppily. It did nothing to negate the facts that 1) though they managed to stop the transfer of the cocaine shipment from one hideout of the DiSanti Family to the next, they hadn't been able to round up all the underlings working on that trip; 2) she basically ended up watching while the actual CEDEF operatives, along with Gokudera, did the real work; and 3) some mook rendered her unconscious and she would have been carried away as a hostage had Gokudera not noticed and ripped the guy a new one for doing so.

She will never forget his angry lecture on keeping her guard up and focusing on the task and not making him (_"You fucking stupid woman!_") worry and _dammit why are you still insisting on this action girl phase of yours? _Nor will her view of Lal's training ever be the same again – not after the month-long (torture) training trip she had to endure as punishment. Everything that Lal would make her do in the future already paled in comparison to _that._

(_Be careful what you wish for, _a voice in her snidely comments.)

This is her second mission.

The Varia members are not exactly happy that they have been thrust with what they consider a babysitting job. Tsuna is not happy to loan Haru to them either ("_Lal-san, it's an _assassination_! Please don't make Haru do it!"_), but Lal insisted ("_Don't be such a wuss, Sawada – whether or not she can handle it is up to her_") that working with a high class team will help her learn her own strengths and weaknesses, and more importantly keep her on her toes.

_On my toes indeed! Lal-sensei, I've got a 99 percent success rate at stake here!_

In all honesty, it should've been one of the Varia's easier jobs, but intelligence is faulty this one particular time. ("_That piece of scum,_" Xanxus rumbled a few minutes back, referring to their mole in the weapons smuggling ring working between Europe and the Middle East. "_He's asking for a fucking funeral._") They have been told that this meeting between the backer and the weapons developer will be secret and low-key, and a kill would be quick and easy considering the lack of security.

"VOIII! What _fucking _lack of _fucking _security?" Squalo roars as the wall they are hiding behind is pelted with bullets from the machine guns that have been set-up around the perimeter of a safe house in the wilderness outside Constantinople, the designated meeting area. "They brought enough to fight a damn army!"

Haru thinks they should have foreseen this anyhow. They were dealing with a weapons smuggling ring – of course the bastards would take advantage of their vast supply of ill-gotten guns and explosives. _I don't know what Squalo-san is complaining about though – three elite Varia members here is a bit much._

"Well, they didn't think to underestimate us." Bel gives words to her thoughts, and _of course _he looks amused at the notion. Haru briefly entertains the idea that they're doing this mission not for its success, but for the thrills.

Squalo doesn't look the least bit appeased. "Yeah, but who told them _we were coming_?"

"Shut up!" Xanxus is the most irritable – but then, Haru knows he always is. Still, it does not diminish her intimidation of him. He glowers at them all, as if they are nothing but hindrances and headaches. (Which, she thinks, is true in her case.) "We'll deal with worthless trash later. Focus on taking the targets out! You, CEDEF girl!" He turns his wrathful red eyes at Haru, who – instead of correcting him – flinches violently. "Can you drive?"

"No sir!" she yelps. Bel cackles again. Their Boss bristles.

"Fucking useless. Can you snipe?"

"Lal-sensei trained me to handle different types of guns, but-"

"_Yes or no_?" Xanxus hisses.

"Yes!"

It's more of an instinctive answer, a primal desire to keep her brains where they should be – in her head and not splattered all over the ground. It's only half-true, however. Lal has taught her the basics of every sort of gun – they had long agreed that she is best at long- and mid-range fighting – but sniping is not her strong point. At _all_. She has never shot a target spot on from a 3000 meter distance, which is Lal's requirement for her graduation from rifles.

But Xanxus buys it, much to her chagrin. He exhales sharply and she can almost see cogs and wheels rapidly turning in his head. "Then you're coming with me." Haru freezes – she's _what?_ – but the Varia Boss doesn't pay that gesture any notice. "Those shitheads are gonna run, now that they know we're here. We're going to follow them. You and you-" Squalo and Bel snap to attention, "-take out the remaining trash that is their lame excuse for a distraction. We're getting a car."

Before Haru can squeak out an obligatory "Hahi", they are jumping into the line of fire, each of the Varia unleashing his fury onto the naïve mooks left to detain them. Bel and Squalo clear a way for Haru and Xanxus to get to the jeep across the battlefield.

Then Haru is running, running, jumping over obstacles and dodging hellfire. Xanxus is five, six, seven long strides away from her, and a bullet whizzes past her ankle. She winces as it lacerates the thin skin there, but staying still is a stupid idea, so she has to run, run, run till her lungs disintegrate.

Several men aim their weapons at her and Xanxus, but the dark-haired assassin makes quick work of them. Inevitably, they all start aiming for her only, and Xanxus slows his pace to match hers, but only to bark: "You damn brat! Either put that gun to good use or I leave you here!"

She knows exactly what he means by 'good use'. She has not used the gun in a mission before, nor has she ever been explicitly ordered to shoot anyone who dare cross paths with them. But the more people attacking her, the more Xanxus has to slow down – and if the enemy doesn't kill her, his impatience will.

So she starts her counterattack with hesitation tucked away.

She moves quickly, nearly frenzied but still precise, and Xanxus picks up the pace in plowing through the ranks that she has no time to check if her shots have hit the right way. She does not even stop to think of the implications of every shot she has fired, only that their targets are getting away and that success is the only option in this setting.

In the back of her mind, she thinks, _My first kill is probably somewhere over there, _but the thought only processes for a nanosecond before it is cut off by absolute focus on the task.

Xanxus fires a shot at the guy on the jeep's driver seat and pulls him off onto the ground, while Haru holds off the rest from behind. Veteran and novice jump into the vehicle (keys conveniently in the ignition), and Xanxus steps on the gas so violently that Haru nearly laughs at the mental image of him kicking a hole through the metal.

Soon enough they're catching up to the getaway car. Haru can see the driver, the backer in the passenger's seat, and the developer squashed between two bodyguards in the back seat. "Fucking idiots, didn't even bother tinting the windows," Xanxus mutters. He glares at Haru. "You know what to do."

Her brow furrows. "H-hahi?"

A nerve ticks under his eye as his scars begin to darken. "Shoot them all, you useless piece of trash!"

It is one thing, Haru supposes, to be unconfident about one's sniping skills when viewing a moving target from 500 meters away. It is another thing entirely to be pumped with adrenaline while riding a jeep driven by one of the best assassins in the world and being told to shoot a target zigzagging in front of them at 180 kilometers per hour.

Who, to Haru's dismay, start shooting at them even before she can collect herself.

"Shoot back!" Xanxus snarls as he zigzags to avoid the bullets as well.

Only her fear of Xanxus's wrath gets her to forget about her lack of confidence. She scrambles to the back and grabs one of the semi-automatic rifles (conveniently) scattered on the floor. She stands on her seat, uses the windshield as leverage, stops thinking, and starts shooting.

She hits the hand of the first mook, then the second, and they drop their weapons. Before they can react further, she fires two more shots that shatter the back windshield, then on the shoulders of each mook. Lastly, she fires at the wheels of the car, which promptly explode causing the car to skid before tumbling down the road like a giant tin can.

"I told you to shoot them all!" Xanxus growls as he brings the jeep to screeching halt ("Hahi!" she squeals when she nearly topples) and jumps off to finish the job.

"I'm not supposed to do _any_ killing!" Haru retorts rather bravely. (Or stupidly, in that she just doesn't want to put in the effort of being scared around him anymore because she's just too _tired._)

"Ch. Fucking useless CEDEF trash."

They complete the mission.

The debriefing afterwards has everyone a bit stunned. The mission is a success regardless of the false information, but that's not the surprising thing. Despite the large amount of foot soldiers (and the number of particularly indiscriminate Varia elite) present, fatalities are at a minimum – apparently the person armed with the CEDEF-issued pistol only aimed at the limbs.

Haru is showered with praises afterwards, by both her friends in Tsuna's circle and by members of the CEDEF she has grown close to. They treat her act of sparing lives as an act of noble heart and a testament of her shooting abilities, and finally the upper echelon of the Varia is starting to look twice at her because of this particular mission. Haru brushes off the praise with modesty, commenting that it is merely due to Lal's high standards that she manages.

No one realizes (though Kyoko, Gokudera, and Reborn suspect) that it's not because she is merciful or skillful or anything like that.

It's because she is slowly realizing the weight of a gun on her conscience, and finding that killing isn't quite as easy as just a resolve to be strong.

* * *

><p><em>Post-chapter note:<em>

The world record for farthest distance of sniper shooting is 2475 meters. Just to give you an idea exactly how high Lal's standards are.

Also, did you notice the _Kill Bill _reference? If you watched the first one, there was a scene where O-Ren Ishii does the strut of power with her lackeys down the hallway of the izakaya. I'm kind of imagining Kyoko in this scene, with a smaller entourage.

**Ceyrai Says: **WOW. That was an adrenaline rush to write – my mind was literally running too fast for my hands. This part contained one of my favorite one-liners for this fic (see the story's subtitle), one of my favorite kinds of relationship (the brother-sister type), and one of the most interesting pair-ups that I really wanted to see written (Xanxus and Haru).

Also, this is where I realized for the umpteenth time that Haru is much weaker than Kyoko emotionally. It makes for such good plotbunnies, that.

Can you tell how much I love this chapter? I hope you loved it as much as I do, or even more. Leave a review guys! Thanks for reading again!

PS It's really annoying how FFnet doesn't let writers type in the exclamation point and the question mark in succession. It just leaves one and omits the other. It get's really hard to show the right emotion for sentences. Anyone know a way around this?


	4. Who Meet Their Prince

**Ceyrai says: **The story turns a bit heavier for Kyoko, while it's downtime for Haru. Still, both girls get to have some unclear things, well, cleared up.

_General Notes:_  
><em>Pairs<em>: 27K, 5986, some 3387 and 1896, some not-quite 2786  
><em>Universe<em>: Canon  
><em>Warnings<em>: English and Italian swearing. Mentions of violence (but what would you expect of a Mafia story?).  
><em>Disclaimer<em>: For all the chapters thereafter – I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, nor any other copyrighted items mentioned.

_Additional Notes:_

_Cielito, Lucia, Juliana, Mirabella: _are OCs who are probably of tertiary importance, but I wanted to give them names anyway.

_2786: _I dislike this pairing, I really do. But I think it has bearing (more bearing than 5986 even, as much as it pains me to admit), so I couldn't not acknowledge its existence. Then again, how I wrote it might come across as anti-2786… ah. Whatever. Your mileage may vary, I guess.

* * *

><p><strong>Snow White and Rose Red<strong>_  
>you can't make her ungrow her fangs<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4 – Who Meet Their Prince<strong>_  
>all's fair in love and war, yeah?<em>

_Kyoko ver 17.4_

Timoteo lives in a world where marriage is both a business deal and a ceasefire pact; where women are living, breathing commodities who are trained from an early age to be ruthless in a different way from what one might expect. Females in his world are born for the job of becoming either Mafia brides or femme fatales – _if_ they are lucky to be born in the right hierarchies of the right Families. Otherwise… well. He does not like wasting time thinking unpleasant thoughts, if he can help it.

Kyoko is not of any Family, nor of any social hierarchy relevant to the underworld, for that matter. As far as Timoteo knows, his successor's choice for a girlfriend was raised in hopes that she will perhaps contribute in Japan's burgeoning economy as a quiet office lady then retire to being a housewife more concerned with the next big vegetable sale rather than the workings of the Mafia. Sawada Nana, in fact, is a prime example of the average Japanese woman and has raised her son well enough for him to be as principled as Timoteo had hoped, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with that sort of woman. In fact, Timoteo thinks that in a perfect world, all that anyone needs to be is a peaceful citizen with peaceful concerns in life.

And there is no question as to whether Timoteo accepts something not pre-arranged – he knows that for a boy like Tsuna forced into being a Boss, it is important for him to be able to make his own choices, especially life-changing ones. But a woman too used to peace is not the sort of raw material one desires, when the final product one wants to mold is a strong Madonna. It suffices to say that Timoteo is just a bit dismayed at Tsuna's choice (even if he has accepted that, well, it's love).

So when the young woman comes for a visit to Sicily with the rest of Tsuna's Family, the Vongola Nono does not expect much from her. He arranges for his wife, Cielito, and his daughters-in-law Lucia, Juliana, and Mirabella to give her a talking-to about the duties of a bride of the Vongola. "Don't you think it's too early though?" Tsuna frets when Timoteo mentions his intention. "I mean- I mean-" The boy blushes, playing with his cufflinks. "I mean… it's not even for certain I'm going to… _marryherinthefuture _or anything."

Timoteo chuckles. He knows that the members of the Tenth Generation have been making a name for themselves as a formidable group not to be trifled with, and already the name Sawada Tsunayoshi is spoken in cautious whispers, but the image _that_ conjures is just so contrasting to the flustered and insecure teenager before him, one so concerned that the girl he loves might think that his (adoptive) grandfather is getting ahead of himself.

"Who's to say that you won't?" the Nono counters gently. "She's in too deep, in any case – it's best to equip her now than later. Besides," and his old eyes twinkle, "she's stuck it out with you thus far. A less devoted girl would have folded by now. I believe she's here for the long run."

They're exactly the right words to persuade Tsuna, who nods gratefully at Timoteo's assessment. Still, devotion to the Family is not enough, and he is determined to at least help mold Kyoko into a bride suitable not only for Sawada Tsuna, but also for the Decimo di Vongola.

Cielito is less than convinced about Timoteo's belief on Kyoko's unreadiness, though amusedly so. "For someone who has such little trust in the girl, you seem unrestrainedly fond of her," she comments.

"She's a sweet, likeable girl," Timoteo acknowledges. "She's exactly what Tsunayoshi needs to cope with this sort of life."

"She's such a dear," Cielito agrees. "So polite and cheerful! Personally I think she's wasted on Tsunayoshi-"

"Oh, Cielito-"

"-but I can't wait to have her in the Family!"

Timoteo raises an amused eyebrow. "And Tsunayoshi tells me I'm getting ahead of myself."

Cielito grins. "Well, they _do_ make a good couple. No reason not to believe so." Timoteo chuckles in agreement. Then the woman's blue eyes turn serious beneath her thick lashes. "But you think that's not enough," she prompts, cocking her head to the side.

Timoteo sighs. "No." With a slight smile, he takes his wife's hands and pulls her towards him. "You should know that best, _cara mia._ You've had to deal with so much as Nono Madonna, I can't imagine how things might've gone if I didn't have you by my side. I want to make sure Tsunayoshi has that kind of support."

"Well, I can't deny how useful I've been to you," Cielito laughs softly, and Timoteo joins her, "and that's exactly the reason why Donna Daniela chose me for you. And now I'm telling you that your worries are unfounded."

"How so?"

"These children have proven again and again that they are capable of steering their own boat, haven't they? Tsunayoshi and his Famiglia do not let the old decrepit traditions restrain them from doing what they believe is best." She winks. "That Kyoko girl has the same independent spirit. She's enough – more than enough – for Tsunayoshi and for the Vongola."

"Still, it can't hurt to make sure," Timoteo replies, still uncertain. "I want to be absolutely certain, Cielito, do you understand? I want her to know exactly what she's getting into, and make sure she has the skill and fortitude to survive everything coming to her."

The Nono's wife exhales slowly. "I still believe you're overthinking this," she says, the corner of her lips quirking up just a bit, "but I'll do as you say, _mi amore_."

And she does, sitting Kyoko down for mid-afternoon tea in one of the mansion's vast gardens along with her daughters-in-law. Timoteo himself talks at length with Tsuna and the Tenth Generation Guardians, but his wife's conversation with the only candidate for Decimo Madonna lingers in his mind. Finally, just before dinner, Cielito glides into his study with an air of triumph and amusement that has been bursting out of her since the subject of Kyoko's education came up.

"Well, she acted exactly as you _didn't_ expect she would," she says, her benign smile quivering with barely-kept mischief as she rests on the edge of his desk.

"What did she do?" Timoteo asks, a little apprehensive.

"She asked to see you directly, of course."

Cielito snickers as Timoteo hurriedly tries to conceal his surprise. "Call it woman's intuition or whatever, but I just knew she would be a plucky girl. Apparently plucky enough to pick a fight with you." And she laughs again. "I don't blame her for feeling insulted by your snubbing, not in the least."

"She feels insulted?" Timoteo asks, a little dazed.

"Well, I _assume_." Cielito arranges her shawl with an air of good-natured haughtiness, and her husband begins to think that she may be having way too much fun with the situation. "I'm certain she's just too polite to say so. I told her to go easy on you though."

And so an appointment is set. And in the hours before said appointment, Timoteo can't help but feel the unease of a teenage boy about to talk to a popular girl, something he never would have thought he would have to feel again. He knows well how easily women may tear apart any self-confidence, especially if said woman has enough of such confidence. He knows it _very_ well indeed – his mother and his wife are the best examples. At dinner, he and Tsuna exchange uncomfortable looks – both men's Guardians notice but do not comment – while their respective ladies trade knowing, mischievous ones.

By the time Kyoko is knocking on the door of his study, he is playing with his cufflinks the way Tsuna did just the day before.

"Nono?"

Her soft voice makes him think as though she will float in, all fragile and fairy-like. But the steps Kyoko take are firm.

"Come sit, young lady," he beckons, motioning at the chair in front of his desk. Kyoko settles, smooth and calm. He tents his fingers together. "So you wished to speak with me, Kyoko?"

Her smile is gentle as always, but Timoteo has seen that mischievous sweetness on another face before. "Oh, I was under the impression _you _had something important to tell me, sir."

"Is that what Cielito told you?" Timoteo feels a bit unnerved when Kyoko merely continues to smile expectantly. He sighs and thinks that it's so much easier dealing with other men, as they're more straightforward. "Well, yes, that's exactly so. As Tsunayoshi's predecessor, and someone who cares about him very much, I want to make absolutely sure that the people by his side are suited for the lifestyle of a member of this Famiglia."

The honey-haired girl merely inclines her head.

"What I mean to say is," Timoteo goes on when it's clear she will not speak until he is through, "it's already a given that Tsunayoshi's friends share the same principles as he – the very principles I want the Vongola to learn and uphold. However, to think as he does is not enough. One must have the talent, and the will to see it all through. It's a very dark world, Kyoko. It's too easy to lose one's way in it, and for a girl like you, it might be too hard to handle."

She smiles a little shrewdly, which unnerves the older one.

"For a girl like me, sir?"

"Yes." But even as he says that, it finally occurs to him how scary even a _girl like Kyoko_ can get. Maybe she doesn't need this talk after all? "Your parents did a wonderful job in raising you to be sweet, peace-loving, and kind. Those are wonderful traits, and exactly what Tsunayoshi needs when he has to rest and forget the world. But to comfort the Boss in his trials is not the only role of the Madonna. She has to be able to deal with the outside world as well, and fight battles a little different but just as ruthless as what her husband deals with. Do you understand that, Kyoko?"

"Of course, sir."

Belatedly, Timoteo recognizes her tactic. It is just like a physical battle, where it is to one's advantage to let one's enemy make the first move. She has let him lay his cards down first, and is still calculating which ones of hers to use. This makes him realize that 1) Kyoko treats this conversation as Tsuna would treat a spar against, say, Lal or Hibari, 2) she sees him as an opponent, not as a conversation partner, and 3) the advantage is hers.

But most of all, he realizes the most important thing – she is doing the exact thing that he is telling her to do.

He continues anyway. "So Kyoko, I'm sure you'll understand why I'm talking to you like this. The duties of the Vongola Madonna are many; and as Tsunayoshi's, in particular, there is much more that has to be considered. It might seem a little early to be telling you this now, but it's important you know what you're getting into, especially while you still have a chance to back out."

Unbeknownst to him, he has been teetering at the edge of the battle platform for a while now, and Kyoko chooses this moment to throw him off beautifully.

"I'm just a naïve girl, sir," Kyoko begins slowly, hands still relaxed on her lap. "I'm not as smart or perceptive as some people. Truthfully, it took me a while to get used to the idea of the Mafia and what it means to be by Tsuna-kun's side through it all. I may not even know the full implications of the path I've chosen after all this time.

"But I think I understand what you're trying to tell me – that a Vongola Madonna is a role that I have to take very seriously, because it's not only in domestic comforts and household management that she is needed. On her fall the duties of defusing situations before they blow out of proportion without resorting to violence and at the same time maintaining good relations with other Families. Did I get that right, sir?"

Timoteo twitches a little, but did not – cannot – speak.

Kyoko nevertheless plows on. "For that, there are many things needed, and they are things I'm not exactly born with, like social grace and rapport and breeding. Also, someone who deals with relations and negotiations has to have an intelligence network of one's own, something that I have to build from scratch. Also quite important, I believe, is a deep understanding of Family politics and underground business, which I need to study further. I need to know about the alliances that hold our world together and the subtleties that can cause butterfly effects all over."

Her gaze focuses on a spot on his desk. "And more importantly, I realize the danger of being associated with him. The more people know who Sawada Tsunayoshi is, the more they'll know who I am, and the boys might find it hard to shield me from the worst of it. Not that I don't trust them to do it, I just don't like seeing them doing anything unnecessary. I need the means to guard them as they guard me, even if those means are not in my grasp yet."

It is certainly unsettling for Timoteo to see Kyoko so still, as though she is weighing the consequences of her words even as she speaks. "It was never my destiny or my dream to be involved in this sort of thing," she continues in a measured manner. "If I had never met Tsuna-kun, if I had never become _his_, I might be just a normal university student, waiting for a desk job to come after my diploma does. I wasn't born in this world, so all the things I need to be a Vongola Madonna are things I don't have."

Then old, world-weary eyes meet young, fiery ones, and a chill – all at once anticipatory and a bit alarmed – runs down Timoteo's spine. "But sir, believe me when I say that the things I need to be a Vongola Madonna are things that are within my ability to acquire. I don't need pedigree or blood relations to some powerful Family to be of use to the Vongola, and to Tsuna-kun. I won't stand to be so useless if a way to be useful is presented to me. What I need is to be strong in my own right, and that is how I will earn and keep my position as the Madonna."

Her determined expression softens into a cheery one. "And sir, as an answer to one of your last comments… well, I think that the chance for me to back out of this has long passed."

It's here that Timoteo realizes that Kyoko understands the role she wants to play better than he does.

Finally, she concedes with, "I may sound quite confident, but I still have much to learn, sir. So please, I look forward to your guidance." And this statement, at once prideful and humble, throws him off balance the most.

He may have lost, but for the most part, Timoteo is left feeling contented when Kyoko shuts the door behind her, after another hour of deep discussion in which he not-quite-reluctantly gives her a few things to start with – namely, contacts with Vongola-affiliated Families that he is sure will open her up to newer horizons. (Even if he thinks, given how confident she sounded, she may already have a network that she has not disclosed to him.) His perspective becomes a little skewed away from his old world-view, but he thinks it's for the better.

He leans back into his swivel chair, rotating to look out into the garden of the manor. He is exhausted, but it is the sort of exhaustion that leaves him feeling satisfied. His lips twitch into a smile.

"It's already changing, eh?"

(It's good they did not discuss the more uncomfortable facts of a Mafia bride – namely, heir producing and child rearing – but he supposes that is what Cielito and Kyoko understand of "going easy on the poor Nono di Vongola".)

_Haru ver 17.7_

Tsuna can't remember the last time Haru fawned over him, and is a bit disturbed by the fact that he is realizing that in _this _particular situation, when he and Haru are alone, cramped in a cabin in the Alps with no way of contacting anyone, at least not until the blizzard is over.

The situation is by no means life-threatening – it started as a chase for stolen research documents on Box Weapons that Verde had asked them to retrieve. Unfortunately, the team split up and the weather had caught up to them before they can do so with their target. Tsuna then spent a good half-hour worrying about the four other members of their retrieval team, before Haru smacked some sense into him.

"Geez, Tsuna-san," she huffed. "They're Vongola, they'll be fine. No Flame wielder is going to freeze to death, not even in this weather, if that's what you're so nervous about."

That is forty-five minutes ago. Presently, they are huddled together in some blankets Haru found in one of the dusty cabinets, watching the dancing Flames Tsuna has produced.

"What Haru wouldn't give for some tira misu and a mochaccino," Haru moans, clearly lost in her own food fantasies. "And oh! Ramen. Even instant would be good. Mmmmm…"

Which brings him back to his bewilderment. Kyoko is – and will always be – the only girl for him, so why is he so anxious about Haru's lack of overt concern for him?

"Did Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-san manage to chase those thieves down?" Haru muses, train of thought still as random as ever. "Those Dutch guys… hopefully they're stuck in the snow too. That way we can still catch up to them."

It's not as if he misses the almost-stalker tendencies the brunette used to carry for him. It was a downright hassle, especially during the time when Kyoko was still beyond his reach. But this Haru – there's just something _lacking_, and he can't peg it down.

_It may or may not be the stalking. Guh. Hopefully it's the latter._

"Tsuna-san, is there something on Haru's face? You've been staring a long while." Haru rubs her cheek with her (_of course they're pink polka-dotted_) gloves – and inexplicably gets grime on her face in the act of trying to get imaginary filth off.

Tsuna snorts as he fails to suppress laughter. "Hahi!" she protests. "Tsuna-san!"

"S-stop rubbing your face!" the Decimo chortles, highly amused even as he tries to warn her. "You're getting grime all over it!"

"Hahi!" she gasps as she discovers her oily fingers. "Geez, what a mess!" She begins to use her sleeve to wipe her face instead.

"So why were you staring, Tsuna-san?" the girl asks when she's done cleaning herself up. "You looked like there was something you wanted to ask me."

He takes a chance.

"I was wondering… er, you don't have to answer if you don't want to… but I'm really curious – well, don't get the wrong idea! – but, um… do you still…" He lets his breath out in a _whoosh_. "Do you still… ah… like me, Haru-chan?" He says _like_ in a whisper, as though it is taboo.

And it apparently is a sensitive topic to the dark-eyed girl still – her permanent blush grows a bit deeper – but she does not run from it. "Well…" She sounds a bit unsure. "To be honest, Haru still finds Tsuna-san… um… adorable, I guess?"

(Tsuna's manliness deflates a bit at her adjective.)

"But… oh, this is tricky." She releases a long, slow breath and looks directly at him. "See… around the time Haru met Kyoko-chan… well. It was hard _not_ to give it up. I mean, you had to be a complete idiot not to see the way Tsuna-san looked at Kyoko-chan and the way Kyoko-chan looked at Tsuna-san!"

Tsuna makes a small noise. He didn't see it until Kyoko herself pointed it out, which probably means he was exactly the complete idiot Haru is talking about.

And… well… I'd be a bitch if I came between that, right? But I was having so much fun having a crush on you – I mean, it's nice getting excited about someone for no reason other than to like – that I just carried on with it anyway. And," she winks at Tsuna, "you were an easy target for teasing, Tsuna-san. Too easy, in fact." She giggles, and Tsuna smiles uncomfortably. For all his growing notoriety in the underworld, he is still the butt monkey in his group of friends.

Haru smiles a bit gentler, eyes turning somber. "At some point maybe I believed it was real, but still… when the time came to drop it, I did without much trouble. It was… weird." She laughs a bit, playing with the loose threads of her blanket. "It was weird to realize that it was for fun, that my love for you was – is – more of the friend kind. Don't you think it's weird? I think it's weird."

"You said weird four times." They share a laugh at that. Tsuna smiles softly, realizing exactly what he misses about Haru.

She hasn't been the Haru he met all those years ago, for a while now. She is still spontaneously quirky, and has the same kindness and spark about her. And he would be lying if he said that those traits did not attract him to her. She was cute as a younger girl (and still is, only in a different way, he thinks… but maybe that's just his changed perspective of her), and she liked him so blatantly that he feels it deserves gratitude.

(And it would be another lie to say he didn't ever like her, even by just a fraction of how much he loved (_loves_) Kyoko.)

But she does not laugh the way she used to. She now carries a particular heaviness about her that he wishes someone could relieve. She is now more mature and even a little more lady-like, but it's different from the way the rest of them matured. She was the most child-like of his friends in his age bracket, and the contrast between her thirteen year-old and seventeen year-old self is sharper than anyone's. Her maturity frightens him as much as it impresses him – how much has she seen in their world that has made her shed her child-like energy so easily?

He realizes that what he misses is the old Haru herself.

"Haru-chan," he breathes. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"For… dragging you into all this. You would've lived normally and happily if not for me. And for… for not liking you back, not as much as you liked me anyway."

Haru blinks at him, then smiles knowingly. Then, to his confusion, laughs that very Haru-like giggle that calls back from a more innocent past.

"Oh, Tsuna-san." She grins at him, honest and open. "Arrogant as always, I see."

"…wh… what?" He was hoping for a gentler reply.

"I chose my own way," she says simply. "I always had a choice, even if some of those choices were not as well-thought out as others. But no one made them for me, not you or anyone. Yes, maybe some things were inevitable, but those inevitable things were a result of my choices. Get it?"

He does.

"And as for not liking me back," she continues, "all's fair in love and war, yeah? I don't regret anything, and neither should you. As I said, it was more fun than painful, so don't feel sorry about it."

Tsuna takes Haru's gloved hand, a bit of the oily filth sticking onto his own gloves. Her hand is warm through the wool. "Are you happy?" he asks quietly.

"Are you kidding?" she retorts, equally playful and serious. "It's not a dream job, but I'm with my precious people. I've never been more."

He believes her, partly because he wants it to be true, and partly because he hasn't seen her smile like that in quite a while.

Actually, scratch that – he _has_ seen her smile like that only very recently, and that is how he knows she's not lying. And he's not above teasing her about it. A mischievous grin spreads across his face.

"It's Gokudera-kun, isn't it?"

And her fierce blushing and sputters and whacks against his arm and multiple stammered _"Hahi"s_ somehow manages to convince him that yeah, she's still Haru underneath the sadness and weariness, and she's going to be all right.

* * *

><p><strong>Ceyrai says: <strong>I think that, if given the idea of it, Tsuna would be quite supportive of GokuHaru. Not just because it gets two admirers who are not Kyoko out of his hair, but also because he'd see it my way. Haha.

Also, my apologies to any 2786 shippers who are reading this fic (_wow, you actually _read_ through this?_) and are feeling disgusted with how Tsuna and Haru's relationship turned out to be. It's just my own opinion, really, just as you're allowed to have yours. Agree to disagree, yes?

So for this chapter, all's well that ends well for Kyoko and Haru. _For now._

Reviews are most welcomed and the only flames I recognize in this site are the Vongola's.


	5. But They Face an Evil

**Ceyrai ****says: **It's been a while, everyone! I've been quite busy with school but here's another serving of this fic. I can't say much about this chapter without spoiling anything... just that there's a lot of blood and tears in it. Enjoy!

_General Notes_:  
><em>Pairs<em>: 27K, 5986, some 3387 and 1896, some not-quite 2786  
><em>Universe<em>: Canon  
><em>Warnings<em>: English and Italian swearing. Mentions of violence (but what would you expect of a Mafia story?).  
><em>Disclaimer<em>: For all the chapters thereafter – I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, nor any other copyrighted items mentioned.

_Additional Notes:_

_Italian __cursing: _Google them if you really want to know what they mean. I clearly had fun with this. XD Correct me if the usage is wrong, though.

* * *

><p><strong>Snow White and Rose Red<br>**_you can't make her ungrow her fangs_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5 – But They Face an Evil<br>**_because you're not supposed to do this for love_

_Kyoko ver 18.3_

Bianchi, needless to say, is hysterical.

"_Porco __dio! __Porco __dio! __Quei __figlio __di __puttana, __quei __che __va __in__culo __a __sua __madre-_"

"Bianchi!" Shamal bellows, and she stops her Italian curse-laden tirade. "Shut up and calm down! Everything's going to be okay!"

_How?_ Bianchi wants to shriek, but the words are stuck in her throat. _How __is __everything __going __to __be __okay?_

"It's going to be okay!" Shamal repeats as chaos continues all around them, but she wants to know _how, __dammit_. There are explosions and fire, and outraged yelling, and his hands are wet, as are hers, with still-warm blood that is not theirs.

Bianchi's hands are shaking violently – like she's been given a shot of espresso intravenously, she thinks in a moment of gallows humor. But she knows she's not supposed to be horrified, nor hysterical, nor frightened about this amount of blood; she's seen this happen to countless comrades and she's caused something like this herself a hundred times over already and she's supposed to be _over __this __shit_. But this is so much unlike the usual gore she sees.

_The bleeding isn't stopping. It's not stopping. Shit. Shit!_

She puts pressure on Kyoko's bleeding torso and thigh, and tears stream down her face.

"_Porco __dio,_" she hisses again.

It's Kyoko, a protégé, a little sister of sorts, a _friend._ And that makes all the difference.

"L-language… Bi… Bianchi-san…" Kyoko whispers, amber eyes drowsy as she swims in and out of consciousness.

"Kyoko!" Bianchi cries out breathlessly, half-relieved and half-panicked. "Ssh, don't talk, save your energy. We'll get you somewhere safe soon, I promise, and Shamal can work on you, and I swear if he tries anything I'll-"

"Tsu…" she draws out laboriously, deathly pale. "Tsu… na… ku… is he… he's… what is h…"

"He's dealing with the enemy." That's an understatement, but the older girl cannot bear to tell Kyoko of the darkness in Tsuna's eyes as he fights the enemies who _dared __to __hurt __his __Family._"Don't worry, he's not hurt, he has it under control. We've got to focus on you, Kyoko. Don't talk anymore."

"S'all my…"

"_No,_" Bianchi says firmly as she regains control of herself, even though she's still shaking. "It's not your fault."

_It__'__s __not __her __fault,_the older girl reassures herself again and again as she and Shamal bring the wounded girl away from the crossfire. _It__'__s __never __her __fault. __It__'__s __just __unfair. __Just__… __unfair._

It isn't Kyoko's fault that her role in the Vongola entails being put in danger constantly, targeted and hurt from time to time. It's not her fault that she fell in love with a man (_boy_) whose lifestyle requires her to put her life on the line. And her faultlessness is exactly what makes this so _unfair._

It was supposed to be a normal trip to the country, something fun for all of them who are tired of the general chaos that rules their lives. Everything was arranged – the route to the destination was inconspicuous and the destination itself was a private Chiavarone estate somewhere in Hokkaido, assuredly an enclave of protection against all that is anti-Vongola.

But who are they kidding? Nothing is normal anymore.

Not while a girl like Kyoko belongs to a boy like Tsuna, the leader of the generation that is standing at the threshold of change. While it is true that Kyoko is becoming more and more formidable in her own right – and Bianchi is proud to have a hand in that – she will always be an unwilling target, a potential hostage, a Family asset that cannot protect herself. Now she plays the role of a victim caught in an attack that was not even meant for her, but she takes its blows anyway. Perhaps that's the norm now.

_Why __would __she __feel __any __of __this __is __her __fault? _Bianchi thinks.

The answer comes to her even before she finishes the question: it is almost a requirement for a Vongola member to take pride in their sense of duty, which would be funny if it didn't have such fatal consequences. And for someone as high up in the hierarchy as the Decimo Madonna, it is not as much a requirement as it is an ingrained property. And Bianchi can't help but think that Kyoko may not have been born in the same world as her, but she has almost perfectly absorbed the native mores that it may not matter anymore.

What matters is that Kyoko is bleeding through the makeshift tourniquet they have made for her, and this is the one norm that Bianchi prefers that the younger girl not get involved in. The fact that Kyoko thinks it's her own weakness that has provoked the attack is what matters even though it _isn__'__t,_ but it is what it is at this point so it's pointless to dwell and _dammit, __there__'__s __still __too __much __blood._

"Tsu… na… Tsu… na…" Kyoko continues to mumble like a mantra. Bianchi thinks this is a good sign – she is holding on to consciousness of her own accord. It's love, and it will tide her over… or at least Bianchi hopes.

_But it's exactly that love that's indirectly caused this, isn't it?_

Bianchi has once heard it said that love is what girls live for, and without love, their blossoming hearts wither – or something so fluffily poetic. And she has always been a firm believer of love, and has always put its powers into practice. It fuels her in her dealings with the underworld, and it (_makes __her __more __optimistic, __foolhardy, __susceptible_) works for her.

She remembers passing this knowledge on to Kyoko and Haru, little sisters of hers in their own way – that love is all that _is_ in this world, the only thing worth living and dying for. She suddenly wishes she had said that it doesn't mean they _literally_ have to die for it, not even as they find themselves more tangled in the web of the Mafia. Because if it's not love that keeps Haru plunging into battles that are not hers, and if it's not love that drains Kyoko of lifeblood now, then she doesn't know what it is.

Shamal somehow manages to remove the debris from Kyoko's wounds and get the largest of them to start clotting using whatever hocus-pocus he deals with, "But she's not out of danger yet," he mutters as the ground beneath them vibrates. They don't speak of the obvious – Tsuna and his Guardians are probably making short work of whoever is stupid enough to attack (_when __the __source __of __Tsuna__'__s __strength __is __in __the __vicinity __and __is __hurt_) their convoy.

Bianchi grimaces. They had known this would happen one day – it is part of the Madonna's unspoken job description – but it is another thing altogether to actually _be_ in this situation. It could have been avoided, of course; she knows that Kyoko has had many chances to turn down the position of Madonna, but she is too full of love and sense of Familial duty to do so.

Yet it is exactly this combination that deals in her and Haru equal parts of hope and despair. It's not right that it's exactly this love that hurts them. But Kyoko takes the suffering along with the love Tsuna offers her, as if _love __is __reward __enough._

(Bianchi wonders if she's turned cynical somehow.)

"I'm… scared… Bi-Bianchi-san…"

And Kyoko, loving and devoted and emotionally strong as she is, is still a young girl. Bianchi's lips quiver, and she wishes she could squeeze the other's hands in reassurance but her own are too busy with staunching the bleeding.

"It's going to be okay," she murmurs, even if she did not believe the words five minutes earlier. "You're not going to die. Trust us - we're going to fix you."

"It's not… that…" she exhales, and she winces when the movement is sharper than she intended. "I just… Tsu… he is… I don't… want him… to hurt people… for someone so… _ugh__… _like me…"

"Kyoko!" Bianchi exclaims, a little alarmed at her pessimism. "They deserve whatever's coming to them, to have hurt you like that-"

"But Tsuna… he's… too kind… He'll… he's… going to be… bea… beating himself up…" Her eyes flutter as she struggles to stay awake. "Beat himself… up for days…"

Bianchi lets out a snort of laughter as tears continue to drip down the tip of her nose. "That's Tsuna, all right."

Kyoko makes a sound that is pained, tired, but amused. "And… you know, Bi… Bianchi-san… I'm… I don't… It's just… scary… if I die… Tsuna-kun might-"

She doesn't need to make the effort to finish the sentence. They all know what _Tsuna-kun_ _might_ if Kyoko is lost.

Tears pool at the corner of the honey-haired girl's eyes, mixing with her cold sweat as they trickle down. "I… love him… I don't… I don't wanna… leave… not yet… I love him… so _so _much …that's why I…" She breathes in as deep as she dares, feverish eyes inexplicably burning in molten determination, "I can't d… I _won__'__t _die. Not while… I'm needed."

And Bianchi almost breaks out into a smile.

It's love, she thinks, but it's also something else – it's a desperation that urges her to live because she is more useful to the Vongola alive and fighting than dead and unaffected. It's an overt sense of responsibility to the Vongola, knowing that her death will ripple from the Family's center to affect everyone who associates with them. It's responsibility to Tsuna himself – no one, especially not Kyoko, wants to burden him any further emotionally.

The bleeding is finally contained – _for __now,_the female hitman thinks just a little grimly – and Kyoko is alive for another day, just as she said she would be. And Bianchi has to be impressed. Few like the Madonna del Decimo can negotiate with Death but with Love. Because it all goes back to love anyway, and Bianchi thinks maybe it's not as unhealthy as it seems if Kyoko's fighting to live for it.

_Haru ver 17.11_

Lal, as far as Gokudera knows, tells all her students one thing right before they undergo her training – anyone who is ready to kill must be ready to be killed. Reborn says it just as bluntly, and Xanxus doesn't need to say it – it's almost prerequisite for a Varia member to know this truth upon membership.

Haru has been drilled with this lesson into her very marrow, and barely needs it reiterated. However, it just needs to be explained to her that for someone with her sort of job, it's true the other way around as well.

Gokudera thinks that it is to be expected though. He has always known that Haru is much too (_kind __and __soft_) frail and naïve for this job, and though she plunges herself into battle relentlessly (_exactly __like __she__'__s __one __of __them_), she is almost afraid to hurt, and (_he__'__s __afraid_) the next time she hesitates, it'll be the end of her.

So when he finds her swimming in a pool of blood, heart-stopping is barely enough to cover what he feels.

He moves faster to her side than he ever expects. "Haruharuharuharuharu shitshitshitshit-" is all that tumbles from his mouth, he himself dizzy with apprehension. His fingers are numb and trembling as he heaves off a large-set male body sprawled on top of her. Has she finally felt the repercussions of being too nice in the face of danger?

_"Haru!"_

Her eyes are glossy and blank, but she's breathing and the blood isn't hers, and knowledge of that is all it takes for Gokudera's legs to jellify and fold to the ground.

"Haru," he croaks, some part of him a bit shocked at how overwhelmingly frightened he was (still is). His hands settle on her limp shoulders. "You stupid, stupid, stupid…"

The corpse pooling even more blood around her supine form, her previously immaculate work clothes red-stained and half-unbuttoned, her gun and knife far from her reach, her fingers still curled around a bloody, bent fork – it is easy for Gokudera to put all the clues together. It doesn't make it any less troubling.

He only vaguely feels himself pull her up to a sitting position, wrap her in his smoke-scented blazer, grab her disposed weapons, and carry her out of the carnage. His mind is in limbo – somewhere in the numb vagueness is a pang that the logical part of him knows will turn into full-on pain when all this has sunk in. He can't even bring himself to believe his own words when he whispers against her (coppery sticky wet) brown hair, "It's going to be all right, Haru." Because really, how can it be all right when she's seen (_brought __about_) death so up close?

He brings her into the nearly complete Vongola Headquarters in Namimori, a reconstruction of the one they had stayed in during their time warp adventure. Several people, including Yamamoto, Irie, and Lal, try to accost him and Haru, but Gokudera waves them all away. What she needs – though he doesn't know why he knows – is a warm bath, a quiet place, and someone who will listen and not patronize, judge, or criticize.

(It surprises him a little that he thinks _he_could be the one to do so.)

He somehow gets her into the suite she shares with Kyoko and convinces her to shower and change. She does so with little complaint, but only because she has no strength, nor indeed presence of mind to argue with him. Miraculously she carries out these tasks with no incident, considering her state. Gokudera doesn't fail to notice, however, that she takes an hour longer in the shower than usual. He tries to listen for her sobbing, and he can't tell if it's a good thing he can't hear any.

He doesn't leave even when he has seen to it that she has at least taken care of herself. She sits beside him on her bunk, and he offers her a lukewarm mug of chamomile tea, one that he had I-Pin make thirty minutes ago. He remembers, from a time that feels like a previous life, that Haru once enthusiastically detailed to the rest of them the virtues of each and every tea flavor she possesses. He knows she favors berry flavored teas, but recalling from her enthusiastic lecture chamomile supposedly has calming effects.

_What the hell am I doing, remember that kind of useless shit?_

A few sips later and the tea doesn't seem to be calming her down – instead, it manages to coax out a few tears from her, which she makes no effort to wipe. Gokudera feels a different sort of panic – _Maybe __it __was __peppermint __instead __of __chamomile?_

Her voice is ragged when she finally speaks. "I've never… confirmed a- a kill… till now," she murmurs, head bent. "It's so… so different from when I just shoot and… not know where I'm hitting."

He thinks he's been there, but he isn't sure – his first confirmed kill is so long ago, and buried under too many other bodies that he has sent to hell. But he probably has been there, or else he wouldn't be feeling the hurt and despair that shows through Haru's eyes, would he?

For lack of anything to say, he merely nods like he understands – anything he could say is meaningless in the face of this situation, anyway.

Haru laughs bitterly. "Wanna hear something weird? This is actually the first time that I know for sure that I've… yeah. Do you know that I never read through the autopsy reports because I'm afraid to see if my bullets were the fatal shot? It's really stupid, huh? I'm such… I'm such a _coward._" The hands wrapped around the mug quiver, and Gokudera beats down the urge to _make __them __stop._ As a compromise he takes the mug from her before she can drop it.

Her breaths come shallower. "All that blood," she whispers, eyes swimming in tears. "It's my… I did that. With a… with a _fork._ Again and again, until he… It… It… haha… it would be funny if it weren't so barbaric, wouldn't it? And…" She turns to him, eyes wild and desolate. "And he _looked _at me. Watched me as I…"

Gokudera has a brief sensory memory of seeing Haru there on the bloodied floor, button-down shirt ripped open and skirt hiked up. And he feels a black kind of fury, all-consuming and cold.

"He deserved it," he growls harshly, gripping his pant leg. "That _fucking __bastard, _he-"

The Storm Guardian stops when Haru whimpers, and he remembers that he is there to listen.

"I know_,_" she sobs. "I _know_. I was just protecting myself, right? I couldn't let him do as he pleased, right? So it's absolutely practical, what I did. He deserved it."

"He deserved it," he affirms, fierce and full of hatred.

"So why…" And she clutches her hair, burying her face into her drawn up knees. "Why does it feel so _wrong_?"

He can't answer that – he's forgotten any innocence he had, or if he had any innocence at all. Hers is still there, aching and raw and terrified to be lost, and that's why she can still afford to ask that question.

After a while, she turns to him, a watery and bitter smile on her lips. "You think I'm weak, don't you? I think you may be right on that account." She can't keep the façade up for long, and her face breaks into a sob again. "You were right. You're always right. How could I be so…?"

And – _fuck __it_– it's painful to watch her like this.

"Pathetic and stupid? Too naïve for your own good?" Gokudera asks. He belatedly regrets how coarse he sounds, and Haru laughs humorlessly. The breathless sound stops when he grasps her shoulders, remembering to be gentle. "You're _Haru._You weren't made for this. You were made for smiles and pretty things and it's even in your name, for crying out loud. You're too nice and that's why you can cry for some bastard who almost tore you apart. And you persist in this job anyway, because most of all, you're Haru and you _love._ It's stupid because you're not supposed to do this for love. The Mafia doesn't work that way."

He's not sure if she understands all that he is (_and __is __not_) saying. Maybe she does, because girls are just more intuitive like that.

She lets out a sharp exhale that sounds like a real laugh, and the muscles in his shoulders that he doesn't realize are tense loosen. And it makes him remember exactly why he's trying to cheer her up when it isn't his forte.

As for Haru, she is just glad that it is Gokudera who is there when it happens, not Lal or Reborn or Xanxus who will only remind her of a reality she ought to have known years ago. Gokudera is the one who remembers her fragility the most, and for now, that is a good thing. Even if he doesn't know the right words to say, just the fact that he _tries_ actually gives her the right feeling – one that makes her know that one day, things will be better.

"Thank you, Gokudera-kun."

She lets him ease her into an awkward embrace, breathing in the lingering cigarette and expensive cologne scent of his dress shirt, and lets the wounds close.

* * *

><p><strong>Ceyrai <strong>**says: **It gives me a sense of achievement to write something close to melodrama while not being overtly romantic.

By the way, the fork stabbing is a _Noir _reference.

I don't want a lot for Christmas... I'd just like a bit of your time and effort put into a review. Thanks and Happy Holidays, everyone!


End file.
